Mutante: Chapter 10
Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Frerichs
Rosie nodded. Her grandmother, trapped inside that clear sack of eyes and organs, flitted through her mind. It wasn’t a fate she would wish on her worst enemy. “I have to do this,” she said, holding Robert’s gaze. “I can’t let Aunt Rina take over the reef, and without Grandma to keep her in check . . . .” She took a shuddering breath. “This is my—” She swallowed hard, the truth she had known for so long refusing to come out. “I’m the only one who can fix this in time. The path will take you home. You and Waterdancer should get out while it’s still safe. If I succeed, well, I still don’t know if the forest will be safe. But if I don’t succeed, I would hate to think that you’d be stuck in here.”
“A knight must not leave his fair lady in danger,” he declared in ringing tones.
She raised one eyebrow.
He gave her a sheepish look. “Give up an adventure like this one? Not likely.” He squeezed her hand and smiled. “You’re stuck with me. I’ve been waiting for something like this my whole life.”
“All right.” She shifted her attention to the mirror. “How do we start?”
Thomas cleared his throat. “As the potion will be utilized shortly, the order of ingredient-collection does not matter. The basket contains Madam Essie’s traveling potion kit, and I believe she included containers for storing the ingredients. She has black sand in one of her gardens, but the rest of the ingredients you will have to locate yourself.”
Rosie nearly slapped herself in the face. She had carried the basket and still hadn’t even stopped to wonder at the contents. Survival had been prioritized over curiosity. Now she opened it and studied the contents. A shrunk down cauldron—one that hopefully required only the counterword to enlarge it rather than magic—a set of long tweezers, several stirrers of various metals, a container of various-sized vials, and several small boxes. “Do you know how to make the potion, Thomas?”
He gave her an affronted look. “Of course I do. I have been watching over your grandmother since long before you were born.”
“Oh, good. I was hoping you would, since I haven’t the faintest clue how to go about it,” she said conciliatingly. “I guess—I guess that only leaves the ingredients.”
How in the world were they going to find all these ingredients, let alone collect them? Forest fireworms were the stuff of nightmares: between their enormous size and poison-tipped hairs, no one willingly got close. Her blood and the magical kelp would be easy enough to obtain, but the rest . . . . A blue siren-plant? Was there even such a thing? And if there was, how could they even get close to it? All it took was one breath of the wretched plant’s spores! Not to mention finding cerulean kelp. And what was fairy’s breath?
“At least we have the magenta kelp,” Robert said, patting Waterdancer’s bulging saddlebag. “That’s one thing we don’t have to worry about. What were the other ingredients again, Thomas?”
“The hair of a fireworm, a seed from a blue siren-plant, one vial of fairy’s breath, one vial of black sand, one cup of chopped magenta kelp, one cup of chopped cerulean kelp, and one vial of Miss Rose’s blood.”
Robert frowned. “What’s the fairy’s breath?”
The mirror opened his mouth and then closed it. “I assume Miss Rose is familiar with it, or else Madam Essie would have given further directions.”
Robert’s eyebrows shot up. “You don’t know what it is?”
“I—I do not accompany Madam Essie on her forays,” he said repressively.
“Rosie?” Robert asked.
“Um, well, something to do with the cave, maybe? Breath is the air that humans exhale, right? So maybe it’s the air in the cave.”
“It is air of some sort,” Thomas said.
Rosie straightened her shoulders. “That’s probably it then—unless you know of some other fairies?”
Thomas grimaced. “I only know that it was somewhere in the forest.”
Robert gestured towards her belt. “What about that compass of yours? You could tell it to take us to the fairy’s breath and all the other things. At least we wouldn’t have to worry about finding them then.”
“I don’t even know the first thing about altering it!”
He tilted his head to one side. “You figured out how to make it show where the path was.”
“Yes, but that was—it was pure luck! I have no idea how it works or what might happen if we ask it to find us something Grandma Essie didn’t include.”
“A compass?” Thomas asked, head tilting to one side.
Rosie sighed and drew out the compass starfish her grandmother had given her more than a decade ago. “Grandma Essie enchanted it.”
Thomas frowned. “How does it work?”
“You know more about magic than I do,” Rosie said, hands spread wide. “Grandma didn’t exactly explain it to me—she just taught me the rhyme that makes it work.”
“What rhyme is that?”
Dutifully, Rosie recited it, and the starfish’s blue glow immediately resumed.
Thomas’s frown deepened. “That sounds rather like a spell. Why does it work?”
Rosie shrugged.
“And you altered it?” he pressed.
“I just switched out the location.”
“It’s a basic location spell.” His eyes flickered back and forth between Rosie and the still-glowing compass. “I still don’t understand how she could have imbued the rock with magic that was that long-lasting.”
“But can it be used to find other things?” Robert pressed. He ran a hand down Waterdancer’s neck. “I doubt you two are any more thrilled at the idea of searching the entire forest than Waterdancer and I are. I don’t want to strain him any more than necessary—nor do I see how we can collect anything while we’re fleeing for our lives. And what if some monster gets lucky? Your grandmother might not be the only one who doesn’t survive this week.”
“While the forest has its dangers, one can safely navigate them with a little caution—” Thomas began.
Rosie shifted closer to the mirror. “The forest has changed,” she told him. “I’m guessing Aunt Rina put some spells on it to keep people away from Grandma Essie. Every time we started heading to the house, sea monsters pursued us and the kelp became nearly impossible to get through. If it hadn’t been for the path . . . .”
Robert brightened. “If we can change the compass, does that mean we can change the path? Adventures are all well and good, but I imagine collecting the ingredients will be dangerous enough without having to risk our lives getting there.”
“Even if the path could change locations, I doubt it would lead us all the way to a blue siren-plant—it protects from danger, not leads travelers into danger,” Rosie protested.
Robert crossed his arms. “Well, Thomas, can we change it?”
Thomas studied Rosie speculatively. “I do not know. Miss Rose may certainly try, though.”
“Well, how does she do that and which item shall we go after first?” Robert rubbed his hands together gleefully. “Maybe the other magical kelp?”
Rosie glared at him. “And I suppose that you will just happen to keep a few fronds for yourself.”
“Well, it would be a shame to waste it all.”
Rosie rolled her eyes. “Fine. But if it makes you break out in blisters or something like that, don’t blame me.”
“How does Rosie alter the path?” Robert asked, turning to Thomas. “We should get started right away.”
Thomas cleared his throat. “I am familiar with the process, but I cannot guarantee the results. Miss Rose, how do you find the path in the first place?”
“I just have to find the spot where it starts by the starfish rock and then recite the rhyme Grandma Essie taught us.”
“And that rhyme is?” He held up a hand. “Please do not imagine the path changing, as we are already on it. Simply say the words.”
“Grant us passage that is safe
through this dark and gloomy place
to Grandma’s house we want to go
through all the currents, high or low
take us on the way that’s true
through the realm that’s deep and blue
allow no dangers, vast or small,
to reach us on this path at all,” Rosie recited.
“What rhyme do you believe would do in its place?”
Robert scoffed. “Isn’t that your job?”
Thomas gave him a withering glare. “Miss Rose, what rhyme do you believe would lead you to the correct kelp?”
“Well, the compass worked before by just changing the destination, so what if I substituted ‘to cerulean kelp’ in for ‘to Grandma’s house’?”
Thomas shook his head. “Changing the destination worked because it was the same number of syllables and still rhymed. Think about the rhythm of the rhyme. How can you keep it the same?”
Rosie bit her lip. The task seemed impossible, but there must be a way. Her tail twitched, and she began to swim back and forth in front of the mirror. “What about—?” She winced. “No, never mind.” Her thoughts whirled. What if she failed? What if she couldn’t alter the path and they ended up wandering the kelp forest in search of ingredients and died in the process and then Rina took over Aquaria? Her tail twitched more violently, throwing her to one side. Robert lunged and caught her before she broke the smooth surface of their tunnel of safety.
“What was that about?” he demanded. “You can’t leave the path! Aren’t you the one always telling me that?”
Heat flooded her cheeks. “Just my tail being clumsy.”
Thomas cleared his throat. “If I may, you seem agitated. Perhaps take a moment to calm yourself and then worry about the rhyme afterwards.”
Rosie nodded, her cheeks still nearly the color of her tail. She pulled in a deep breath of water and then another. Eventually, she felt calm enough to work on the rhyme again. “All right, I’m ready.”
“We are in a safe location for the moment, so there is no need to panic over the—the rhyme,” Thomas said soothingly. “Now, there are three syllables in ‘Grandma’s house.’ What might you replace it with that would match that number?”
A sudden memory popped into her head: her grandmother and Aunt Rina playing that very game with her when she was just learning to read. It had been years since she had done it, but she used to be fairly good at it. “Well, ‘cerulean kelp’ already has four syllables, so maybe change the rest of the line?”
Cut the “we want,” Rosie suddenly thought. “to cerulean kelp we go,” she said.
“Very good!” Thomas said. “Now recite the whole rhyme as though you were standing by the starfish rock and visualize yourself ending up at a patch of cerulean kelp.” His face faded away to be replaced by a picture of bright blue kelp swaying in gentle ocean currents.
Staring at the picture, she imagined the path taking her to that very place.
“Grant us passage that is safe
through this dark and gloomy place.
to find Cerulean kelp we go,
through all the currents, high or low.
Take us on the way that’s true
through the realm that’s deep and blue;
allow no dangers, vast or small,
to reach us on this path at all.”
The path warped around them; the tunnel shrinking for a moment before it turned in an entirely different direction.
“Did it work?” Robert asked Thomas.
The mirror’s face reappeared in the mirror, and he peered about. “I believe so, however, the only way to know for sure is to take the path and find out.”
The path behind them had disappeared. Dread pooled in Rosie’s stomach. They were committed now. Either the spell had worked or it hadn’t, but they could neither return home nor go to Grandma Essie’s.
“Well, let’s get started then!” Robert said, beaming at Rosie.
She gave him a sickly smile and, as Waterdancer lurched forward, Rosie gripped Waterdancer’s saddle tightly to hide the shaking in her hands.
A/N: Thanks for reading! I really need a beta, so if you’re interested, please PM me. Or if you don’t want to beta but notice something that can be strengthened, pass it along! 🙂
See you on Thursday!
